Housing for garbage disposer



Ma rch 28, 1961 R. W. HYDE HOUSING FOR GARBAGE DISPOSER Original Filed Dec. 20, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l BY Iain/jg?" finzgxmim ATTORNEYS.

March 1961 R. w. HYDE 2,977,054

2,977 ,054 HOUSING FOR GARBAGE DISPOSER Division of application Ser. No. 392,873, Nov. 1a, 1953.

Continuation of abandoned application Ser. No.

262,626, Dec. 20, 1951. 1959, Ser. No. 815,991

4 Claims. (Cl. 241-46) This application May 26,

This application is a division of parent application Serial No. 392,873, filed November 18, 1953. The parent application is a continuation of an application filed December 20, 1951, Serial No. 262,626, now abandoned.

The parent application is directed to a garbage disposer unit of the type designed primarily for installation in a home. This application is directed to the general overall construction of the unit and particularly to the housing of the unit which is designed to facilitate its manufacture. The base of the assembly to which substantially all of the other main parts are either attached or from which they are supported comprises a rigid casting. This casting is circular as viewed from above. In general, the comminuting elements of the disposer, including a casing forming the comminuting chamber, are mounted atop the body casting. The electrical motor which drives the unit and the attendant wiring etc. are located at the underside of the body casting. Two metal shells are provided to enclose the unit. One of these, designated an upper shell, encloses the casing which provides the comminuting chamber. The other one, designated the lower shell encloses the motor and wiring located underneath the casing. These two shells are secured to the body casting by a unique ring which embraces flanges on the shells and securely locks them to a bead formed as an integral part of the body casting. Thus, the housing for the unit also is anchored to this rigid cast member which is the base or backbone of the unit.

In assembly, the upper shell is sprung, but not to exceed the elastic limit of the material of which it is made, so that it is under substantial tension, which tension is resisted by the snapring. This tension is employed to hold internal components of the unit in place, but it also makes it practically impossible for either the curious or the uninformed to tamper with the internal parts, thereby insuring that the unit is installed in the perfect working order in which it leaves the last inspecting station. of the assembly line. j

, Inasmuch as the present application concerns primarily the overall constructionof the housing and its related parts, attention is directed to the parent applicatiomto which reference haslbeen made, for adetailed disclosure of the unit in its entirety. Attention, is nowdirected to the detailed description of the accompanying drawings inwhich: t 4,

Figure 1 is an enlarged side elevational view of agarbage disposerunit shown in that time in the assembly;

during'which the upper shell is being sprung into a position to receive the locking ring. In this figure parts are addition to this,' however, the body casting andathe other; parts are arranged so that substantially all partsorsubassemblies; of parts may be assembled .by either. press atet ice

fitting one part into another, or by simply seating one part on or into another part. The purpose is to simplify and reduce the handling of the parts necessary to manufacture a unit. Thus, in general, as disclosed in the parent application, a motor shaft 134 is seated within its journal in the body casting, the motor stator 146 is press-fitted into an appropriate seat 147 in the underside of the body casting, a shearing ring 85 is press-fitted into an appropriate seat in the upper face of the body casting, a casing 80, whichprovides the comminuting chamber on top of the shearing ring and then these parts are enclosed by the upper and lower housing shells indicated at 28 and 33 respectively.

More specifically, the rotor, which is indicated at 133, is pressed (and may be keyed) onto the lower end of the motor shaft 134. Shaft 134 is journalled in an upper, flanged bearing 135 and in a lower, cylindrical bearing 136. The respective bearings are press-fitted into the upper and lower ends respectively of an appropriately sized vertical bore which extends axially through the body casting 89. Permanent lubricating means are provided for shaft 134, the means including an oil wick ring 137, which surrounds shaft 134 in the space between the respective upper and lower bearings 135 and 136. Lubricant, preferably oil, is fed by capillary action to the oil wick ring by felt plugs or blocks which are seated within bores angulated downwardly through the body casting from the oil wick ring to a lubricant reservoir. Oil is fed from the wick ring to the upper and lower bearings 135 and 136 by means of oil feeder grooves cut into the motor shaft as at 138. The lubricant reservoir includes a cup 139 which may be press-fitted onto an appropriate seat provided on the underside of the body casting surrounding the motor shaft. Blocks 140 of felt or other material adapted to hold oil are housed within and are retained in place by cup 139. A slinger ring 141 on shaft 134 is provided at the lower end of r of shaft 134 axially thereof.

to facilitate handling priorto and during installation;

cup 139 to return the oil to the reservoir which is fed' down the shaft by the lower set of feeder grooves 138.- A: retaining ring 142 may be provided to hold the slinger ring in place relative to the shaft against the upper surface of the rotor 133. V

A commercial oil seal indicated generally by the numeral 143 is provided to seal the upper endof shaft 134 with respect to the drain trough 101 which isforrned in the upper face of body casting" 89Jsurrounding" upper bearing 135. The upper end of the'shaft above bearing is of reduced diameter and has a flat 144'formed" thereon to key a cutter disc 92 of the unit to the shaft, the cutter disc being held. on the shaft by means 'of a; large headed bolt 145 which threads onto the upperiend' The sub-assembly of cutter disci 92 and motor rotor 133 is thus held in place within the body casting by means of the single bolt 145 .It is preferred,-ther'efore," that the threads of the bolt are such that; the bolt tends to tighte'nduring rotation of the cutter disc.

The parts of the motor circuit, including a condenser 148, an overload protector 149, the brackets necessary to hold these two elements in place, -thewiring and relays, all are mounted within the lower housing shell 33 beneath an insulator diaphragm which separates these parts from the motor; An opening is provided in the lower portion of the housing for the two leads, indicated at, 151, for the motor. A removable plate, notshown, may be provided in the bottom of the housing to permit access to the insidethereof. As shown in the parent.

' application it is preferred that 'at -leas't three rubber pads or feet be securedto the bottom of the housing so; that the unit may be rested upon the, floor orjothenflat surface in an upright positionflThe feet are provided" The present invention concerns primarily the assembly of the two shells 28 and 33 with the body casting 89 which is one of thelater steps in the manufacture of the unit. A square bead 34 extends completely around the out- Side of the body casting with the exception of'the portion thereof forming the drain opening for the unit. Details of the drain opening are illustrated and described in the parent application. And as shown there, and as indicated at 34a in the accompanying drawing, a portion of the body casting, to form the drain opening to the unit projects through appropriate cut-out portions of the upper and lower shells 28 and 33. Obviously, since the projecting portion 34a is on the same level with the bead at'one'side of the unit, the bead stops at both sides of the projecting portion. The lower rim of upper shell 28 is turned outwardly and slightly upwardly to provide a locking flange 35. An identical flange 36 is provided on the upper rim of lower housing shell 33-. These flanges are just slightly wider than the bead 34 and they engage the upper and lower surfaces thereof in the assembled unit.

The numeral 153 indicates a rigid support for the lower housing. At this step of the assembly the rubber pads or feet have not as yet been fastened in place. The rigid support 153 is hollowed out as at 154 to conform to the curvature of the lower portion of the housing shell 33, so that the unit stand upright and is firmly supported. The numeral 155 indicates a circular presser head, the function of which will now be described. At the stage of the assembly shown in Figure 1 the body casting and the parts which with it constitutes a major sub-assembly are in place. The electrical parts are also held within the lower shell 33 and the casing 80 is seated. The circular, resilient gasket 124 is in place on the annular shoulder 82 at the upper end of the casing, and the annular shoulder 12.3 of the upper housing shell 28 is resting upon the gasket 124. At this time, however, the shoulder 123 is configurated as shown in Figure 1 so that it slants upwardly from the point of contact with gasket 124 and so that the turned-over rim 35 of the upper housing shell 28 is spaced above the annular bead 34 which is formed on the outside of the body casting. The next step in the assembly is shown in Figure 2. In this step the presser head 155 is lowered to distort or spring the shoulder 123 of the upper housing shell downwardly to where it is substantially horizontal. With the housing shell 28 sprung in this fashion, the outwardly turned rim 35 is seated snugly against the annular bead 34 and a snap ring, indicated at 156, is engaged over the respective rims 35 and 36 of the upper and lower housing shells. The snap ring is coextensive with the bead, being split to accommodate the projection 34a as appears in Fig- 2 of the drawings. As shown in Figure 2, the band .156 is generally semi-circular in cross section and a lip 157 is turned inwardly and downwardly from its upper edge. An identical lip 158 is turned inwardly and upwardly from its loweredge. These two lips interlock with the rims 35 and 36 of the two shells. The snap ring, or center band, therefore, retains the shoulder 123 in its distorted or sprung condition to lock the parts of the unit together. Preferably, a flexible metal, such as steel, is used for the ,upper housing. shell 28, the metal being further characterized by requiring between 1000 and 1500 pounds of pressure to spring the shoulder. This makes it substantially impossible for the snap ring 156 to be removed by hand tools. The parts of the unit, therefore, within the housing cannot be tampered with by curious or misinformed workmen at the time the unit is installed.

' The next and final step in the assembly of the unit is to place a mounting ring assembly upon the upper end of shell 28. For details of'the assembly reference'is made to copending application Serial No; 815,992, filed:

May 26, 1959, also a division of the parent application, Serial Number 392,873, filed November 18, 1953.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A garbage disposer unit comprising a body casting which is circular as seen from the top thereof, a shaft journalled in the center of said body casting for rotation about a vertical axis, a circular cutter disc disposed above said body casting and in driving connection with said shaft, an electrical motor in driving connection with the lower end of said shaft, said motor being supported by said body casting at the underside thereof, a frusto-conical casing seated on top of said body casting, said casing be ing disposed with its central axis in alignment with the) axis of said drive shaft and the wall thereof tapering inwardly and upwardly to enclose the sides of said cutter disc and define therewith a comminuting chamber, a bead extending around said body casting circumferentially thereof, a lower housing shell adapted to enclose said motor and the lower portion of said body casting, said lower housing shell having an outwardly turned lip at the upper rim thereof, an upper housing shell adapted to enclose the upper portion of the body casting and the casing above said body casting, an outwardly turned lip at the lower rim of said upper housing shell, the lips on said shells adapted respectively to seat against the upper and lower sides of said bead, and a snap-on ring adapted to engage over the outwardly turned lips on the respective upper and lower housing shells to lock said shells to one another at said bead.

2. A garbage disposer unit comprising a body casting which is circular as seen from above, a shaft jo-urnalled in the center of said body casting for rotation about a vertical axis, a circular cutter disc disposed above said body casting and in driving connection with said shaft, an electrical motor in driving connection with the lower end of said shaft, said motor being supported by said body casting at the underside thereof, a frusto-conical casing seated on top of said body casting, said casing being disposed with its central axis in alignment with the axis of said drive shaft and with the wall thereof tapering inwardly and upwardly to enclose the sides of said cutter disc and define therewith a comminuting chamber, a bead extending around said body casting circumferentially thereof, a lower housing shell adapted to enclose said motor and the lower portion of said body casting, said lower housing shell having an outwardly turned lip at the upper rim thereof, an upper housing shell adapted to enclose the upper portion of the body casting and the casing above said body casting, an outwardly turned lip at the lower rim of said upper housing shell the lips on said shells adapted respectively to seat against the upper and lower sides of said bead, a snap-on ring adapted to engage over the respective outwardly turned lips on the respective upper and lower housing shells to lock the shells to' one another at said bead, and said upper shell having an annular shoulder engaging the upper edge of said casing to holdsaid casing in its seat on top of the body casting when said upper shell is locked as aforesaid.

3.'A garbage disposer unit comprising a body casting which is circular as seen from above, a shaft journalled in the center of' said body casting for rotation about a vertical axis, a circular cutter disc disposed above said body casting and in driving connection with said shaft, an electrical motor in driving connection with the lower end of said shaft, said motor being supported by said body casting at the underside thereof, a frusto-conical casing seated on top of said body casting, said casing being disposed with its central axis in alignment with the axis of thelower portion of said body casting, said lower housing shell having an outwardly turned lip at the upper rim thereof,-'an upper housing shell adapted to' enclose the upper portion of the body casting and the casing above.

said body casting, an outwardly turned lip at the lower rim of said upper housing shell, the lips on said shells adapted to seat on the respective upper and lower surfaces of said bead, a snap-on ring adapted to engage over the respective outwardly turned lips of the upper and lower housing shells to lock said shells to one another at said bead, the upper shell having an annular shoulder adjacent the upper end thereof which seats upon the upper edge of said casing to hold said casing in its seat on top of the body casting, and said annular shoulder being in sprung condition when said snap-on ring is engaged as aforesaid, whereby the shoulder tends to pull the lip on the lower rim of the upper shell upwardly thereby making it difficult to disengage said snap-on ring.

4. A garbage disposer unit comprising a body which is circular as viewed from above, an electric motor supported by said body at the underside thereof, a drive shaft extending upwardly from said motor through said body, a circular cutter disc disposed above said body and in driving connection with said shaft, a casing seated on top of said body to enclose said cutter disc and define therewith a comminuting chamber, a bead extending around said body circumferentially thereof, a lower housing shell adapted to enclose said motor and the lower portion of said body casing, said lower housing shell having an outwardly turned lip at the upper rim thereof, an upper housing shell adapted to enclose the upper portion of the body and the casing above said body, an outwardly tur-ned lip at the lower rim of said upper housing shell, the lips on said shells adapted respectively to seat against the upper and lower sides of said bead, and a snap-on ring adapted to engage over the outwardly turned lips on the respective upper and lower housing shells to lock said shells to one another at said bead.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 740,664 Kroll Apr. 4, 1903 2,078,137 Halvorson Apr. 20, 1937 20 2,112,266 Brand Mar. 29, 1938 2,495,983 Richards Jan. 31, 1950 

